Marquez-Onwere

Marquez-Onwere
Full name	Marquez-Onwere Football Club
Nickname(s)	MarquezOW, the naranja
Founded	Prior to CMSC I
Dissolved	Following CMSC XXXIX
Ground	La Escalera Naranja
Capacity	38,080
Owner	Ricardo Wendell
Final Director of ; Football	Clement Wiley
Final Coach	Alejandro Blanco da Cruz
League	CMSC
Home colours	Away colours

Marquez-Onwere Football Club was a professional football club from the small university city of Ownere in Candelaria And Marquez. The team was founded as a representative XI of Marquez and the Candelarias Outlying Islands to contest two series against a counterpart side from Candelaria before joining the CMSC league as a club team.

MarquezOW, also known as the naranja, were ever-presents in the CMSC1 during the fifteen seasons of its ‘International Era’, winning the title in XXVI under Andy Woolworth, the first overseas manager in Candelariasian football. Years later they lifted the fourteenth Globe Cup under Alejandro Blanco da Cruz, who would prove to be their final coach before the CMSC’s collapse.

Owned for much of the International Era by the Nethertopian businessman Sam Wendell and later his newphew Ricardo, the club was renowned as one of the strongest breeding grounds of young talent in Marquez, and C&M generally.

History

Pre-history

A relatively small town until the second half of the twentieth century, Onwere was one of Marquez’s lesser centres of footballing excellence. The sport was arguably the most popular in the town and its environs for many decades as a participation exercise, and several small clubs were among the first to be established by either English or Spanish speakers in Marquez, but potential supporters were soon siphoned off by the giants of El din, Melin and Castillo. Universidad Onwere achieved a modicum of success as an amateur outfit, and even became one of the first sides invited into the National Foot-Ball League, but soon fell into obscurity. The club became Onwere University in the early 1960s and as of the collapse of Candelariasian professional football remained in existence as a semi-pro side that effectively served as MarquezOW’s ‘B’ team; retaining only the barest connections to the university itself.

A second university side, Estudiantes, became Onwere United in 1962 and emerged as the major side of the rapidly growing English-speaking population. They failed to make the first division in the NFBL’s final decade however, and an attempt at the creation of another franchise in the city was aborted once it had become clear that the league wasn’t about to be re-established in a hurry.

The Select XI

The lucky break for football in the city came some years later, once the CAMAFA had decided to attempt to revitalise the game in the islands with the creation of a regular championship between representative sides. A squad known as the Marquez and the Outliers Select XI was brought together under the stewardship of Juan Ramos, comprising mostly Marquezian players – and, at that, mostly ones of a Spanish-speaking background.

Though initially controversial, the make-up of the side soon became unquestioned, once the M&OXI began to dominate their Candelarian rivals in the inaugural series to an utterly unexpected degree. Though the Candelarian side’s manager was soon under fire for his part in the ensuing embarrassment, the truth clearly was that the second island’s Hispanic footballing community had now not only caught up with their Anglo neighbours, but surpassed them in all-round ability.

Built as part of Onwere’s hosting of the Rushmori Student Games, the Estadio de Francisco Álvarez was the largest – and certainly most modern – stadium available on Marquez at the time of the CMSC I, and was selected to host the sixth match of the series. This turned out to be a dead rubber, with the Marquezians adding a fifth victory before descending on Allemali a week later for a good crow in the ‘final’.

Financial restraints, and the wish for as many fans as possible to see the matches, saw the Marquezian games during the second CMSC series stationed permanently in Onwere – a controversial decision, particularly given the distinctly Anglophone nature of the modern city in comparison to the continued make-up of the squad. The team in which goalkeeper Cristian Farfán, midfield dynamo Cory Rojas and strikers Leonardo Gagliardo and Omar García were the star attractions however was soon taken to the hearts of Onwere locals – not only promoting social cohesion in that city, but across Marquez as a whole. The collective pleasure of getting one over on Candelaria brought by the Select XI is frequently attributed to having had more impact on community relations on the island than almost any other initiative, and the team romped home to a second six-one series victory.

Marquez-Onwere FC

Despite the one-sided nature of the competition; the popularity of the new CMSC and the re-established amateur CMS Cup was immense, and with the country clearly ready for professional football once more, CMSC III was rolled out to a dozen clubs.

Rather than break up the Select XIs entirely, the CAMAFA opted to create Candelaria-Allemali and Marquez-Onwere. The pre-existing clubs in the two cities had either long-since ceased to exist or, in Onwere’s case, had never claimed massive support, and the popularity of Juan Ramos’ side ensured that the new club would immediately become one of the most fervently followed in the country.

A matter for considerable debate for years after was whether the first two CMSC titles ‘counted’, from the perspective of Marquez-Onwere’s trophy cabinet. By general consensus – and certainly by the CMSC’s official records – they do, giving MarquezOW a total of four titles and putting them behind Albrecht FC and Green Island in the CMSC era and level with Albrecht Turkush. Certainly, although the new club’s kit, badge and other such paraphernalia was altered for CMSC III, much of the squad remained in place – making the team instantly the title favourites once more.

Marquez-Onwere romped to their first league title soon after, and Candelariasian football seemed set for an era of domination not seen since Albrecht Turkish had made the NFBL their own personal plaything during the mid-1960s. Ramos continued to add to the squad, bringing in giant defender Rubén Hernández and promoting local youngster David Lenci to the first team, as well as signing the Candelarian goalkeeper Curtis Waters, and the team of CMSC IV was widely considered to be the finest ever put together in the Candelarias prior to the peak years of the ‘International Era’.

Ultimately however the team choked, and could only manage a third-place finish. The following season their start was even worse, leaving them huddled in mid-table after the first quarter or so of the season and with wealthier clubs streaking ahead. Their inability to cope with the financial might in the transfer market of Gamboa FC, KT Hotspur and the Albrecht giants left its mark, though a significant divide within the boardroom was also becoming increasingly obvious. At the half-way stage Ramos was sensationally sacked, prompting fruitless demonstrations for his reinstatement and leaving the club’s future on a precipice.

Splits and rebuilding

The next major challenge to the club’s status as one of the league’s giants came in the form of Onwere FC, a new club unrelated to any previous entity but railing against what they described as the artificial nature of Marquez-Onwere. The new club remained a nominally amateur team for a time, making the CMS Cup final during the CMSC VI campaign – that competition’s final outing as an amateur-only tournament.

Turning pro for the following season, the true nature of Onwere FC soon became clear – that their ownership was made up of the same sort of businessmen still charged with having brought about the meltdown of the NFBL, and those Onwere locals who had taken to supporting both sides soon turned their backs on Onwere FC. The club soon faded back into obscurity, though a small number of former Onwere United fans would later take up their cause, making them one of the more competitive sides in C&M amateur football for years to come.

Far more damaging proved the ongoing conflict between English and Spanish-speakers, just a few years after MarquezOW had been widely extolled as a shining example for community relations. The matter was made worse by the publicly-owned nature of the club, with all fully paid-up members having a say in the make-up of the boardroom. The divide left either group unable to place the blame for the continued disruption at the feet of any particular individual and, mid-way during the VIII season, a Hispanophone group broke away to form Club Marquez. Politically charged from the off, the ensuing summer saw three members of the MarquezOW squad walk out on their contracts in favour of joining the new amateur entity, which soon became hugely popular among the most hard-line of Hispanic Marquezian nationalists and separatists from across the island.

Club Marquez long remained a nomadic entity – an organisational nightmare, especially after promotion to the professional CMSC2, while it too ironically went on to suffer several separate boardroom schisms between ideological groups. Relations between the two clubs improved over time, with Club Marquez even occasionally accepting players on loan.

The aftermath saw MarquezOW see a rapid rise in membership, though not all of it entirely welcomed, from Anglo Marquezians from across the island. Having been unable to properly formulate a signings policy in the previous seasons; new manager Jack Cox relied largely on young Onwere locals who had come through the club’s youth ranks – a spirited bunch, who achieved an unexpected third-place league finish in CMSC XI and beat Albrecht FC in the CMS Cup final the following season, following a fifth-place league finish.

The wilderness years

These achievements soon proved something of a false dawn, however. Once their naivety had died away, the young side struggled in the league and repeatedly finished in the bottom half of the table under several different managers – another cup victory in XIII being a surprise highlight. With Castillo FC being financially overwhelming in Marquez, and the stock of local youngsters solid but largely unspectacular, MarquezOW seemed destined to chug along as a side with little to play for at either end of the table.

With an increasingly consistent squad having matured somewhat by XVII, manager Seb Murphy guided the team to another third-place finish – and completed a Marquez one-two-three at the top of the table. Both they and Cathedral City soon had many of their better players stripped away by Castillo, and MarquezOW returned to the bottom half of the table – and a narrow survival after a long relegation battle in XXI.

Ayoví

The arrival of yet another new coach, Macario Ayoví – the first Hispanic Marquezian in the role for quite some time – brought an added impetus the following season, and new manager syndrome helped the club avoid any relegation worries. In time, the plaudits for the naranja’s revival would also come the way of Jacob Byrd, the head of the Marquez-Onwere youth academy; but Ayoví and his scouting network were rightly praised for putting together an experienced team from disparate sources.

In XXIV, MarquezOW came within twenty minutes of lifting their first league title since III, with a team that included veteran forward Benjamin Dementjev and Mamdooh Momtaz, a goalscoring midfielder signed by Ayoví from amateur obscurity – an extremely rare occurrence even at the time, when even signing CMSC2 players has become unusual for the country’s truly top clubs. Byrd’s efforts were also crucial – twenty-somethings Matt Reddington and Micky Jones in the midfield were Onwere natives, as was the exceptional young goalkeeper Harry Primrose, while this season also saw the first real impact of the academy’s interest in the village of Calamocha.

Calamocha had provided MarquezOW stars in the past – Rubén Hernández and Joaquin Morales among them – but XXIV saw striker Ignacio Vélez formally break into the first team, and precocious midfielder José Felipe Cassumba Domingos also make an intermittent impact. The presence of such players, not only from Calamocha but their heirs from other Hispanic villages in the nr Onwere area, came to contribute massively to MarquezOW’s return to ‘big club’ status – not only on-field, but in finally bringing many Hispanic supporters back into the fold.

Only goal difference stopped MarquezOW from taking the league title the following season, despite the loss of Momtaz to a Cafundelense side; the emergence of Reiban Okeke and presence of overseas winger Niclas Kjaer maintaining the naranja’s position as most people’s favourites for the title.

With Vélez picking up eighteen league goals and Kjaer deservingly in the reckoning for the inaugural Foreign Player of the Season award (prior to taking Candelariasian nationality), MarquezOW should have been on to a good thing. Instead, the youth of the side proved their downfall – along with a series of obvious tactical blunders from Ayoví – and the side finished a distant eighth. The overall quality of the football on show was still high, but Ayoví was sensationally given his marching orders – a call widely seen as premature and that threatened to open up old wounds among the fans.

Woolworth

XXVI saw the board opt to pull off a stunner – and sign the CMSC’s first ever foreign manager. Andy Woolworth came highly-rated, despite having recently been sacked himself as the Kura-Pellandi national team head coach, but he arrived late and was forced to put as much faith in youth as his predecessor. Defenders Mars Douyadari and José Luis Sosa came into the line-up, and teenager Merlin Siriwong was also given plenty of opportunities.

The side stormed to victory in their first five matches, an achievement overshadowed only by that of a cheaply assembled and table-topping C.A.L. team. Moving to the top themselves shortly before the two-thirds mark of the season, MarquezOW found themselves in a battle with the Albrecht giants, with the media relentlessly hyping a potentially decisive final-day meeting between the naranja and Albrecht Turkish.

So it proved, with Vélez and Okeke scoring late to give the home side a 2-1 win and a sensational league title ahead of Turkish, the speed of the naranja’s attack and the seemingly endless opportunities for goals from anywhere on the pitch setting a new standard in the CMSC – and despite the narrow nature of their ultimate victory, this side is considered one of the worthiest league champions of all time.

The following season saw the team strengthened with the arrival of Woolworth’s countryman John Horner to the right-back role, and Starblaydi holding midfielder Jack Stafador joining to offset the long-term injury absence of Reddington. Another three-way title tussle was expected, but the presence of Stafador could not stop vast holes appearing in the MarquezOW midfield as his colleagues streamed endlessly forward in support of Vélez. Though they remained part of the chasing pack behind Turkish, the outstanding league leaders proved unstoppable to all but Green Island, with MarquezOW finishing fourth.

Disappointing though that was, Woolworth’s side continued to prove themselves consistent contenders the following term, with the loss of Vélez compensated by the arrival of Cafundelense international Careca. In the event, Albrecht FC swept away with the league during the Apertura of XXVIII, while MarquezOW’s first international campaign ended in a TQCC qualifying defeat to Druidisian of Demot and a failure to qualify for the next Champions’ Cup through the league.

Without global play to worry about however, the naranja’s league form improved to see them finish third once again, albeit distantly, and also win the CMS Cup – a somewhat tedious, 1-0 victory over KT Hotspur. The season continued to mark the rise of Siriwong, as well as enhance their status as the league’s most shamelessly gung-ho outfit, but Woolworth’s insistence on sticking with a stable squad and first team seemed increasingly questionable the following term.

Internationally, the side were massively impressive in knocking out Capitalizt giants Sonoma Center Panthers to make the TQCC3 group stage, but MarquezOW managed only a single victory once there – and were heavily beaten at home by Petardos S/A and Real Malakoff of Acapais. Even in the league they remained in touch at an extremely tight half-way stage, bagging another international campaign. Knocked out again in TQCC qualifying, Acapaian opposition proving a consistent thorn in Woolworth’s side, they instead made the Globe Cup group stage and from thence the knock-out stages – eventually making the semi-finals before an away goals victory for Harrington Lakeside of Kura-Pelland put them out.

The Globe Cup campaign proved an enormous distraction however, with MarquezOW enduring a truly awful second half of the season. The naranja ultimately survived in the CMSC1 by just two points, easily enough to cost Woolworth his job, despite the immense successes of the past.

Harvey and the Wendell takeover

The late sacking of the Kura-Pellandi stunned many supporters, who were also less than impressed by the arrival of Christopher Harvey, a young coach who had worked wonders with MN Smith during their most recent period of turmoil but who still only had one full season of management behind him.

Harvey was certainly walking into a difficult situation at MarquezOW too, with midfielder George Jones their only major summer signing, and not exactly one that the team particularly needed. With the emergence of holding midfielder Toby Perry and winger Diego Fernando Pappas, Harvey was forced to make the best of the youth system, and for a while they did him proud – the team finishing the Apertura just two points off a Globe Cup place, though they and he did suffer the indignity of seeing MN Smith qualify for international play ahead of his new side.

Crucially, Harvey’s MarquezOW adopted a rather more cautious approach than in previous seasons, but their final position of twelfth was still disappointing, even with a run to the CMS Cup semi-finals. The following season saw much of the same – solidly mid-table, the focus was clearly on giving youth a further chance, with mixed results.

As XXXI wound down however, the Nethertopian billionaire Sam Wendell suddenly announced his intention to make MarquezOW the second foreign-owned club in the CMSC (following the takeover of Albrecht FC and ignoring the new Nethertopian club presence in the Candelariasian professional leagues). Though initially in uproar, supporters soon warmed to the concept – cheerfully trading in their shares, and within a matter of weeks the club was entirely in Wendell’s hands.

Though now theoretically the wealthiest club in the land, Wendell was initially slow to part with cash– largely because of the need to return to the top four before big-name foreigners would reconsider MarquezOW as a serious proposition, and the unwillingness of other CMSC1 teams to be asset-stripped by the naranja. Equally, most supporters believed that the club should, where possible, remain committed to the youth-centred policies of the Byrd era.

XXXII and XXIII

The XXXII season was one of steady development rather than instant revolution, despite the signings of C&M centre-half Eric O’Brien and talented young Cafundelense Leopoldo Souto Maior. With the team often struggling for goals,and few of their younger players looking capable of replacing the now veteran Careca, a bid for the top four seldom looked probable but Harvey’s side ultimately finished in a not unimpressive seventh position. Even further, MarquezOW won their fourth CMS Cup title, beating Cathedral City in the final and guaranteeing a Globe Cup run further down the line.

Whether MarquezOW, for all their riches, were truly capable of attracting the best from home and abroad remained to be seen however, but the club raised eyebrows prior to XXIII with the signings of Cafundéu international full-back Cotuba and Dancougan duo Joseph Cecilia and Augustine Dennin. The latter pair’s expensive acquisition was a blatant attempt to grab instant success and push the naranja into league title contention from the off, and the team were duly competitive throughout the Apertura without troubling the top two.

Much to many supporters’ pleasant surprise however, Harvey and Wendell remained true to the club’s roots by giving youth a chance, with Macario Oliveira Tavares and Souto Maior holding down starting spots, and Jacob Davies and Robbie Hendricks granted their fair share of matches once injuries had begun to strike – the team facing particular problems at the back with Cecilia ruled out long-term no sooner than had O’Brien returned from an extended spell on the sidelines. Though otherwise looking an altogether more solid and tactically assured outfit, their injury worries and the stop-start form of the top stars ensured that Wendell’s promised league title bid would fail to materialise, but in other theatres Harvey made a rather greater impression.

The Globe Cup campaign won by their CMS Cup title saw MarquezOW win their group – with victories that including a 7-4 clash with Alianza Ciruelas of Aguazul – but in the round of thirty-two the team were surprisingly knocked out by Beningrad in a banner year for Sorthern sides internationally. Their form in the domestic cup remained as strong as ever however, powering through into the final once more. Harvey’s men lost that battle 3-0 to a resplendent Albrecht FC, but had been comfortably assured of a fourth-place finish in the league for some time.

The loss of Sam Wendell

All the talk prior to the XXXIV season remained focused on gradual transition ahead of the exploitation of the club’s vast potential wealth, with more than a handful of supporters beginning to doubt whether Mr Wendell had ever intended to put significant money into the team, rather than more tangible assets such as the stadium and training ground. Though the squad was enlarged considerably, the only major addition to the first team was Joãio, the Marquezian-Cafundelense-Nethertopian midfielder, with Harvey left to trust in Davies and Daniel Dos Santos, alongside fleeting appearances from fellow YTS products Wildash Gatti and Luís Sáez further up field.

For all that, many pundits soon recognised that Harvey had quietly assembled an extremely strong and balanced team – from the back, with the experience of Wildernis and O’Brien and natural talent of the ‘keeper S’toris well-matched to keep the pressure off their younger cohorts, to the extremely solid midfield base of Dos Santos and Joãio that served to present free reign to Pappas and Oliveira Tavares to bomb on forwards. Souto Maior meanwhile, rapidly developing into a special player indeed, was given something of a free role behind Dennin.

The well-tuned nature of this side soon became apparent, as the naranja ploughed through their early fixtures, dropping just five points from their opening eleven matches and heading the table from Albrecht FC by seven. Despite doom-laden predictions of MarquezOW running away with the title, Harvey was quick to stress that a wobble-up would happen eventually, however hard it appeared to see just where it would come from. In the event, it followed after the naranja gave away the lead at Caires Sports to concede twice in the final ten minutes.

The cause was undeniably of external origin, for it became apparent that Mr Wendell’s only worry was not, in fact, sickness, nor even occasional police harassment, but rather being crushed in a freak 7.4 magnitude earthquake centred on his mansion in the outskirts of Mignon, Nethertopia. Though the upheaval in the boardroom was kept to a bare minimum following the confirmation of his death, with Wendell’s Marquezian-born nephew Ricardo taking the reigns – and much of the family fortune – within weeks, there was no doubt that Harvey and his team had been left shaken by the club’s loss. Damaging defeats away at Albrecht FC and Tenderville United followed and, with the winning habit firmly drummed out of their system, the club crumbled to fourth place from the Apertura stage. Internationally too they suffered – though this was at much from the sheer competitiveness of their TQCC13 group as their on and off-field decline.

Perhaps only narrowly making the top four provided the renewed impetus necessary to challenge once more, but the team were soon back clicking and looking competitive, moving back to the top of the table a few weekends later. Despite fears that Dennin’s relatively elderly status would see him unable to keep up his earlier goalscoring form throughout the Clausura, the Dancougan remained a nightmare for the strongest of defences. Unbeatable in the most literal of senses, the naranja lost just a single game throughout the second half of the season and went on to lift the Clausura trophy.

Unfortunately, the one game they did lose proved decisive – coming on the final weekend of the season. Having strung together several draws and briefly losing the lead to Green Island, they subsequently watched the GIZ go down unexpectedly at Sloane Wanderers on the penultimate weekend to leave the naranja’s fate in their own hands – but the fixture list cruelly had them visit a Caires City side buoyed by their own international form and preparing for a Globe Cup final that MarquezOW themselves had missed out on having exited in the quarter-finals on the away goals rule. With Davies, Dos Santos and Joãio all absent on national duty, and Dennin and Oliveira Tavares still recovering from injury, it was a below-par side that was forced to travel to Caires and, despite a spirited fight, heartbreakingly lose 2-0 to drop a point behind Green Island and hand the Zapata outfit the league title.

Subsequent decline

The following season after missing out so very nearly on championship glory however, the naranja proved XXXV’s surprise package – in struggling badly, particularly during the Apertura, and ultimately finishing in eighth place some 28 points behind the eventual champions.

Despite the loss of both Dennin, who had opted not to sign a new contract offering a reduced weekly wage in favour of taking confirmed first-team football with Albrecht Independent FC, and Dos Santos, who had moved to Dancougar, MarquezOW started the season as the bookies’ narrow favourites. The arrivals of Cassadaigua captain Katie Cincoski – ironically from the Indies, where she had been one of the discoveries of the season – and Starblaydi full-back Gloria Villasenior had raised hopes for genuine glory pushes both at home and abroad, but the team’s new glass jaw soon became apparent. Drawing six of their first ten matches, Harvey was forced to publicly all but give up on a domestic title challenge and hope that the team would still represent a significant surprise package in the ICCs – but three defeats away from home at TQCC15 saw them finish third in their group, making Globe Cup 12 where they were promptly ousted by Atlético Jutense.

The high point of the season came on matchday twelve, with a truly remarkable 7-0 victory over Albrecht Turkish, in which perennial substitute Bas Smith registered that most unusual of CMSC feats – a hat-trick. The result proved a false dawn however, and one of just five victories during the Apertura stage of XXXV.

The naranja’s Clausura was barely better than the first half of their season, though they did at least secure Globe Cup 14 qualification. With a side that, player for player, still appeared indisputably one of the best in the country however, Harvey was left with a huge amount of soul searching to come. Harvey’s declining relationship with the board was evidenced most directly with the failure to make many major new signings, with Chris Stewart’s arrival from KT Hotspur to replace the Cafundéu-bound Davies the only real addition to the first-team squad. Despite the strong squad hopes were far from high for an opening weekend victory in Zapata – Sáez giving MarquezOW the lead before Green Island breezed back to a 5-2 victory.

It would prove Harvey’s final game at the helm – his sacking was announced barely an hour after the final whistle, with successor formally appointed little more than thirty minutes after that.

Blanco da Cruz

Ricardo Wendell’s decision to axe his manager so early into the season prompted derision from almost all quarters of the game, the situation alleviated little with the appointment of Alejandro Blanco da Cruz, the Sorthern Northlander. His own past record was impressive, dominating the Sorthern league with Castrograd SC for a time as well as leading them to a Globe Cup victory – the first time any club from his home country had lifted international honours – but he was certainly still an unknown in C&M and the critics were out to see him fail from the off.

Instead, Blanco da Cruz excelled. Unafraid to interfere with big egos, regularly dropping the likes of Sáez, Cincoski and Souto Maior in favour of youth products and squad players; his naranja began to look an almost unbeatable prospect. Internationally meanwhile, the new man had to juggle the early start to the UICA calendar and the nascent stages of the CMSC, guiding MarquezOW from their 1-0-1 start in their Globe Cup 14 group under Harvey to victory and a place in the knock-out stages. A series of confident victories over big guns followed, with the likes of Dunboor FC and San Solari left stunned by the previously unheralded Gatti and Smit in particular, before the naranja qualified for their first UICA final, against Septrentrionia’s Football Nordiqueville across in West Zirconia. The 2-0 victory, with Gatti and Smit duly on the scoresheet, gave Blanco da Cruz his second Globe Cup title and the island of Marquez its first.

On that form, the naranja still had hopes of pushing for the domestic title but their unbeaten record soon started to become a chore to maintain and the club began pulling out draws from tricky and simple encounters alike. Making the top four after the Apertura was no struggle, but the team were far from imperious and gratefully welcomed Souto Maior back into the fold. Rejuvenated and chastened from his experience on the bench, the Cafundelense had a monster of a Clausura even while MarquezOW struggled – and were it not for himself and Oliveira Tavares it is entirely likely that the team would have failed to make the top four once more and indeed crumble to a mid-table finish. Blanco da Cruz’s few remaining naysayers jubilantly proclaimed that he had been found out tactically, or else that his much-vaunted man-management skills were beginning to grate with certain sections of the squad, while the step-up to the TQCC was also proving too much once again – finishing fourth in their group with just a single victory.

Seeking to mould the naranja further in his image, Blanco da Cruz signed two of his countrymen – experienced winger José María Gómez from former club Castrograd and Sorthern international centre-half Kaeton Fishsnapperbottom – but owed the side’s positive start principally to the partnership of Sáez and Smit. Though the pair’s goals were sufficient to help keep second in the table and undefeated until matchday ten – when they fell to a heavy home defeat to league leaders Albrecht FC – the Marquezian half of the strike pairing was clearly not in the manager’s long-term plans. Gatti and Souto Maior – now finally called up to the Cafundelense national team and in ebullient form perhaps as a result – instead slotted back in behind Smit; but any disruption from this change was minimal with the club comfortably inside the top four and five points off the lead at the half-way stage.

The breakthrough in the Champions’ Cup remained a significant challenge, with the naranja failing to pick up a win during the TQCC19 group stages and finishing fourth behind Sorthern side Heathfield United, but domestically their form remained extremely high right up until the close of the season – thanks largely to the goals of Bas Smit; the large, late-blooming Nethertopian forward adding goals to his game during XXXVII to ultimately take the Golden Boot. With two games to spare, MarquezOW moved back to within two points of the Scorpions, but were comprehensively beaten by Albrecht Turkish the following weekend to fail to take the title race into a final round of games – their tally of seventy-two points still their highest since the move to an eighteen team top-flight.

Further more, TQCC20 saw Marquez-Onwere finally make the competition’s knock-out stages – though they would unluckily draw perennial and eventual champions Yuba United, going down 4-0 at home in the first leg and beaten by the same scoreline for the return match in Paripana.

Final years

Though Blanco da Cruz was able to make a handful of additions to the squad, only Cafundelense full-back Evandro made any real impact. There was widespread concern from the off that XXXVIII could prove a season too far for a team consisting mostly of thirtysomethings and fragile younger players, and so it soon proved. Vital defender Chris Stewart lost most of the season after struggling to recover from a broken metatarsal, and by matchday twenty the team had dropped into the bottom three. The Champions’ Cup provided some cheer, qualifying for the knock-out rounds ahead of old foes Heathfield United and Sonoma Center Panthers, but they were then comfortably ousted by Jacob Davies’ Cafundó do Juta.

A run of five victories and one draw in their final six games helped drag the naranja up to sixth in the final standings and a place back in Blanco da Cruz’s beloved Globe Cup. The team received a modest reshuffle with veteran Pocoan striker Ishmael Van Dyke in to partner Smit and Babbage Islander Glen Brown expected to dictate play from the base of the midfield, while Sortherner Leroy Ngheim stepped up from the bench to take his place in goal. MarquezOW still suffered another dire start however, and amongst repeated booings-off Blanco da Cruz began to follow the path of so many managers on their last legs by throwing in unbooable youth team teenagers. For a time it appeared to work, with teen winger Aitor Riesgo the star in a 1-0 away win at Turkish, but draws subsequently failed to turn into wins and eventually became defeats instead. Failing to make the Globe Cup group stages, MarquezOW found themselves back in the bottom three and remarkably remained only a point from safety ahead of the final day – and would have achieved an astonishing first International Era relegation were it not for Van Dyke’s late equaliser at home to NAPPC to pick up the point they needed to remain ahead of Turks' Club.

In the end it would all account for little – there would be no relegation and promotion ahead of the XL season for there would be no XL at all, and Van Dyke’s goal proved Marquez-Onwere’s last.

Stadium

Marquez-Onwere’s history is inescapably connected with its former home ground, the Estadio Francisco Álvarez (named for a semi-legendary soldier, entrepreneur and philanthropist hailing from Onwere), since it was the largest by capacity on Marquez at the time of the inaugural CSMC. The stadium was in use by the club until the XXXII season, prior to which Onwere was selected as a host city for World Cup 44 – with the promise of Wendell’s financial input into the construction of a new stadium. La Escalera Naranja duly hosted four matches at the tournament, including the quarter-final encounter between Starblaydia and the Capitalizt SLANI.

At full capacity, la Escalera Naranja was once again Marquez’s largest, though much of the total 56,512 seats came from a series of eight modular tiers (four behind each goal) that gave the stadium its distinctive staircase look. Through the use of cranes, small boys, etcetera, these could be removed at any time – and the club played most league games with just one of the extra tiers on either side, for a capacity of 38,080. When not in use at the football stadium, the extra tiers were used at other open-air events, most notably for golf. The full capacity was used during a World Cup 46 qualifying match between C&M and Jasĭyun in a game marred by crowd trouble, with the stadium not again used by the national team until World Cup 49 qualifying. La Escalera Naranja later hosted the Globe Cup 17 final between Arrigo Portuguese and Football Nordiqueville; the Marquezian club going down 2-1.

Meanwhile, The Orange City became one of the most advanced club training facilities in the Candelarias. The pride and joy of Sam Wendell, the ‘City’ covered a vast site outside Onwere that dwarfed many of the surrounding villages. There were thirteen pitches, some with natural grass, some synthetic; some were particularly long or short in either direction in direct mimicry of some of the country’s most notable stadia, while there were a wide range of smaller fields for finishing exercises and similar. A vast central building housed the youth academy, as well as a large and well-equipped gym, a world-class hydrotherapy centre and medical centre.

Unlike the stadiums of so many other professional clubs in C&M following the collapse of the CMSC, la Escalera Naranja wasn’t so much demolished as dismantled, its various tiers being repurposed for public events both in the Candelarias and overseas. The Orange City is now a census designated place with a population of 1,659 (2020), and a popular destination for corporate paintballing excursions.

Players

Supporters’ Players of the Season

Supporters’ Players of the Season
Season	Winner
XXV	Ignacio Vélez (FW)
XXVI	José Felipe Cassumba Domingos (MR)
XXVII	Jack Stafador (AM)
XXVIII	Careca (FW)
XXIX	Jack Stafador (AM)
XXX	Careca (FW)
XXXI	Careca (FW)
XXXII	Diego Fernando Pappas (MR)
XXXIII	Diego Fernando Pappas (MR)
XXXIV	Augustine Dennin (FW)
XXXV	Macario Oliveira Tavares (ML)
XXXVI	Leopoldo Souto Maior (AM)
XXXVII	Bas Smit (FW)
XXXVIII	Bas Smit (FW)
XXXIX	Kaeton Fishsnapperbottom (DC)